• The fastest serve ever recorded in a competitive match was Andy Roddick’s 155mph opener against a helpless Vladimir Voltchkov in the semi-final of the 2004 Davis Cup.
• The most games ever played in a tennis match occurred in 1969, just before the introduction of the tiebreak rule. Pancho Gonzales beat Charlie Pasarell in a five-set match consisting of a massive 112 games (22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9).
• The world’s oldest tennis court still in use today is the Royal Tennis Court at Hampton Court Palace, London. Built between 1526 and 1529, it was Henry VIII’s preferred venue to indulge his love of tennis. Legend has him playing here as he heard the news of Queen Anne Boleyn’s execution.
• The definitive origins of the 15, 30, 40 scoring system are lost in the annals of time, but the explanation often given is that they were based on a clock face at one end of the court. Because 45 took too long to say, it was shortened to 40.
• The first championships at Wimbledon took place in 1877. As well as seeing what this new game was all about, their purpose was to raise money for a new lawnmower.
• Croatian Goran Ivanisevic holds the record for most aces served in a single year, with a whopping 1,477 during the 1996 season.
• Forget today’s obsession with “racket science”, the ancient Greeks and Romans used their bare hands to play the precursor to lawn tennis, named jeu de paume (game of the palm) by the French.
• If you thought Roger Federer had it bad, losing to Rafael Nadal in three consecutive French Open finals, pity poor Chris Evert, who holds the record for the most Wimbledon final defeats (six of the seven against Martina Navratilova).
• Finally, the shortest ever grand slam final was the 1988 French Open, when Steffi Graf beat Natasha Zvereva 6-0, 6-0 in 32 minutes.
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